The Purpose of life

Inception:

At some point in their day-to-day routine, people often ponder what exactly one’s purpose in life is. Far greater minds than mine have tried tackling this question. Taking a step back, let’s ask ourselves what does the phrase even mean?. “Purpose of life”, sounds like some deep philosophical question, well, not really I guess; one’s purpose can be as simple as cutting people’s hair, or maybe just make pottery all day. Can these be termed as “my purpose in life”, All a barber does is cut other people’s hair for financial well-being, but that’s just him doing something out of necessity and fulfilling other people’s needs, maybe his own desires are to just have a happy family and live out his years. So, how does one differentiate between doing things for others out of necessity and doing something for themselves?

Unfortunately, more often than not, people do things for survival and not for personal satisfaction. As the Legend Edward Kenway once said, “My Wants and Needs are oceans apart". So, how does one develop a real purpose in life, a sense of belonging and being content for themselves?

Grasping the concept:

Well, for the sake of the argument, let’s assume different people have different purposes in life. For instance; a medical salesman spends his working hours going from clinic to clinic trying to sell his company's drugs, and he is paid around 200$ a month. Some would say he is hardworking and deserves his 200$. On the other hand, we have a product manager at the same company who doesn’t do any physical work, sits in his office and makes threefold. Maybe his purpose in life is just to command other people to work hard and some might even say he is fairly compensated. The point being, different people have different tasks in life, now is this their purpose? What would you say to a dog who survives on the streets with little to no food available? Is his purpose just to suffer and die? What of the cows and sheep who are bred for slaughter, are they to accept the fact that they are to undergo immense suffering and painful treatment just so humanity could cut them up and consume them? Perhaps yes.

What about us?

Coming back to not-so-intelligent beings, “Hoomans”, what of them? What are they supposed to do? An average child is brought up in an intermediate school for education, that child is then put through rigorous academic training for culturing them (Religious or ethnic or whatever). The child develops, what we call, a moral compass. He/She is then told, “what we have taught you is right, do not listen to those that would tell you otherwise”. In some cases, the child might have a clear purpose in life. He/She may know exactly what they are supposed to do. For example, earn a heck load of money, spend to your heart’s content, and ultimately perish.

Questions that may come up when you reflect upon your life purpose :

• Who am I?

• Where do I belong?

• When do I feel fulfilled?

You can obviously search for these answers or just follow some religion, they seem to have this handbook/manual that tells you stuff.

Personally, I had lofty goals as a child, actually dreamt of becoming a Mathematician when I grew up, then I did grow up and guess what, I DO NOT want to be a mathematician. My priorities now are miles apart from when I started, the point being that your dreams and goals may not necessarily be permanent, and it’s okay to feel lost in the moment. Perhaps our purpose in life is just to find whatever makes us happy at the moment.

A possible path of diverting from the main goal:

What’s concerning is the fact that some people, not able to deal with their own failures, set out on a pursuit to annihilate other people, thinking that would somehow help them in their own failures. Some feel the need to take out their competitors, they feel that their strength is somehow challenged and humans being so egotistical, they set out on a not so noble path. As a wise man once said, “Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe. Oversight... Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.”.

(That’s Vision by the way). Perhaps humanity does need an Absolute Rule book that all should follow or maybe some just prefer the chaos

Banking on this very idea, we have seen enormous growth in religion over the centuries, because religion does sometimes offer a sense of direction and a sense of belonging, maybe this is what religion aims to solve.

Defects to see:

Everybody in this day and age believes that they are the masters of their own choice. That they have full control of whatever choice they make (except in desi households, lol). And more often than not, people derive their purpose in life from cultural or religious indoctrination.

This would not be a problem if this worked perfectly, but they are two obvious flaws in this system.

One, assuming your doctrine is perfectly sound. In terms of, “helping other people”, “do no harm”, “live and let live”, that kind of stuff. The actual problem lies in what follows it. Anybody can preach about how great and peaceful their way of life is, yet be clear hypocrites to their doctrine and go around doing exactly the opposite.

Two, even if they followed it perfectly, their doctrine could just be illogical, hence, it is still detrimental to society.

Possible solutions and effects :

Now, how do we solve this? Perhaps remove child indoctrination, and let them decide for themselves whatever they want to do or follow? Well, some have tried that, and it’s been positive to some extent. But the problem is (if you even consider it a problem), is that there’s a lack of clear perspective and purpose in life. This, in turn, causes anxiety, depression, and a lack of sense of belonging.

Hence, people start searching for a purpose in life. Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behaviour, shape goals, offer a sense of direction and create meaning. For some people, the purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through spirituality. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life.

The purpose of life is subjective. It is unique for everyone; what you identify as your path may be different from others. What’s more, your purpose can shift and change throughout life in response to the evolving priorities and fluctuations of your own experiences.

No matter where you derive your meaning in life, always remember that you don’t always have to follow a certain set of rules to achieve your purpose. Taking off-road and thinking out of the box makes each being different from the rest. Maybe the initial stages will be turbulent, but as long as your conscience craves for it, sheer will and determination can do wonders.

And with that, I take my leave, hoping for a better tomorrow and for everyone to figure out what they want to do that makes them happy and content as long as it doesn’t hurt other people.

By Talha Abdur Rahman

Editors: Irum Fathima & Arivoli Aravindhan. G

#Purpose #Life